More people died this week from COVID-19 than in all of July — all as hospitalizations continue to spike.
The county reported 11 more deaths Friday for a total of 64 deaths reported this week. That’s 2 less than the amount of people who died from the virus throughout the entire months of June and July, when a total of 66 deaths were reported.
In June, the county reported 32 deaths. In July, the county reported 34 deaths. With four days left in August, there have already been 149 deaths reported. That’s more than four times what was reported in June and again in July.
Hospitalizations also shot up drastically from one day to the next.
On Thursday, there were 483 people in local hospitals. On Friday, the county reported 675 hospitalizations, an increase of 192 patients or nearly 40%.
One third of them, or 228, were being treated in intensive care units and seven of them were children.
Children, who returned to in-person tuition earlier this month, continue to lead in new COVID-19 infections.
Of the 481 new cases reported Friday, 111 were children under the age of 12 who can not be vaccinated. They made up 23% of the new infections reported Friday.
When you factor in the new cases for all children 18 and under, they account for nearly 40% of all new infections.
At least 75 of those cases were tied to schools, with 53 students and 22 staff members testing positive, according to Friday’s figures.
There have been a total of 518 cases tied to schools since the county began tracking those figures Aug. 18.
